News of the Week (June 28th, 2015)

Obama Scandals

FBI Files Document Communism in Valerie Jarrett’s Family
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files obtained by Judicial Watch reveal that the dad, maternal grandpa and father-in-law of President Obama’s trusted senior advisor, Valerie Jarrett, were hardcore Communists under investigation by the U.S. government.

The Australia Gun Control Fallacy
When someone says the United States ought to adopt Australia’s gun laws, he is really saying that gun control is worth risking violent insurrection.

Did Liberal SCOTUS Justices Just Box Themselves Into Taking a Gun Case?
Today’s ruling by SCOTUS on same sex marriage has the left jumping for joy and many on the right disparaging the Court. People of the gun should take solace in today’s ruling. Today, all 50 states must allow for the legal marriage of two individuals of the same sex. They must also recognize those marriages that were performed outside their state. While the opinion tries to zero in on the Court’s previous discussions of the issue, it seems they spent much more time looking at marriage than the Second Amendment over the years, they have given us some nuggets to pull from

Same Sex Ruling Sets Up National Reciprocity for Concealed Carry
When the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled that every state must recognize same sex marriages, they used a basis for judgement that will not easily stop at same sex marriage. In fact, it is a basis for judgement that should offer itself to national reciprocity of concealed carry permits and permit holders.

Northern Greenland warmer 1000 years ago, warmer in the 1920s too
Thanks to the Hockeyschtick for pointing us at a new study of Greenland ice cores. For the first time, 12 ice cores drilled in the northern section of Greenland have been “stacked” and published. Curiously, these 12 ice cores were drilled from 1993 to 1995, so this is not new data– but it’s the first time that all 12 oxygen isotope records, which are a proxy for temperature, have been published together. The area represents about 10% of Greenland, and seems to behave differently to the southern part. The warm event in 1420 is described as a local effect. The researchers acknowledge that solar activity is important and solar activity correlates with temperatures. It must be growing more and more obvious to climate researchers that their models have to include the long term solar cycles.

Obamacare

Government in Healthcare

Report: Gruber had larger role in ObamaCare
The ObamaCare consultant who once mocked the “stupidity of the American voter” had a bigger impact on the healthcare law than previously known, The Wall Street Journal is reporting.

The Roberts Court: Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss
For all the liberal bloviating about the new direction of SCOTUS under CJ Roberts, today’s opinion in King v. Burwell demonstrates that essentially, nothing has changed. The court is still forced into feckless pragmatism whenever a conservative principle is at stake, but is perfectly willing to venture beyond the expressed will of Congress in order to advance liberal agenda items on their own initiative.

From Justice Scalia’s dissent
Justice Scalia dissented vigorously from the Supreme Court’s decision upholding Obamacare subsidies on the federal exchange. Justices Thomas and Alito joined in that dissent.

National

Google Chrome Listening In To Your Room Shows The Importance Of Privacy Defense In Depth
Yesterday, news broke that Google has been stealth downloading audio listeners onto every computer that runs Chrome, and transmits audio data back to Google. Effectively, this means that Google had taken itself the right to listen to every conversation in every room that runs Chrome somewhere, without any kind of consent from the people eavesdropped on. In official statements, Google shrugged off the practice with what amounts to “we can do that”.

A Big Day for Liberty at SCOTUS
While most conservatives are disappointed today that the Supreme Court did not issue decisions on SSM or King v. Burwell, today’s Supreme Court opinions were nonetheless monumental and, for proponents of liberty, were almost unqualified wins. The Court issued four opinions, three of which will all serve as meaningful checks against abuses of government authority.

Kasich reportedly getting testy as he fails to attract donors
Ohio Governor John Kasich is still officially unofficially running for President, at least until next month when he plans on making it officially official. But in the intervening time, it seems that he’s running into some headwinds when it comes to donors who have long since committed their resources to one of the candidates who got into the starting blocks early. (In the case of Kasich, he’s looking mostly to tap Jeb Bush’s donor pool.) And with the lack of results has come what appears to be a sense of desperation.

JP Morgan Chase Tells Employees “Wife” Insults Gays and Transgenders
A document provided to Breitbart News shows the investment banking behemoth JP Morgan Chase has joined a long line of major corporations in putting pressure on employees to sign up for the cause of gay rights. And they have not-so-subtly let each employee know not signing up will be noted.

“African Americans in the Confederate Army”
By the end of 1863, with the Confederate army lacking resources, funds, and manpower, it had become clear to Confederate General Patrick Cleburne that the south desperately needed to find ways to recruit new soldiers for the rebel cause. Calling it “a plan which we believe will save our country,” in January 1864, he called upon the leaders of the Army of the Tennessee and proposed the emancipation of slaves in order to enlist them in the Confederate war effort. In Episode 24 we explore the role of African Americans in the Confederate States Army.

Amazon, eBay Ban Confederate Flag Merchandise
As the public outcry continues over the existence of the Confederate Flag, prominent online retailers Amazon and eBay announced Tuesday afternoon that they would ban merchandise that depicted the flag.

Jim Webb Stands Up For People Who Memorialize The Confederacy
Former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, a southern Democrat contemplating a run for president, encouraged people on Wednesday to understand the “complicated history of the Civil War” when calling for the removal of the Confederate flag across the country.

An Illustrated Guide to Civil Asset Forfeiture
This cheerfully drawn comic from the Daily Signal does an excellent job highlighting the insanity of civil asset forfeiture. It begins with a quintessentially American premise: a young person setting out on his own, all wordly possessions in hand, to start a new life as an adult.

Supreme Court finds disparate impact claims cognizable in housing cases
The Supreme Court has just affirmed the Fifth Circuit’s ruling that the Fair Housing Act allows lawsuits based on disparate impact – that is, an allegation that a law or practice has a discriminatory effect, even if it wasn’t based on a discriminatory purpose. The case is Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project.

From Justice Scalia’s dissent
Justice Scalia’s dissent in today’s gay marriage diktat is all must reading. Short of posting the whole thing, let me offer these pointed excerpts (to which I have added some paragraphing in the interest of readability)

Economy & Taxes

International

33 Dead, 130 Injured in China Knife-Wielding Spree
A group of knife-wielding men attacked a train station in southwestern China on Saturday, killing at least 29 people and injuring more than 130 others in what Chinese officials called a terrorist strike, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The Right Takes Denmark
Here is some more pleasant international news to add to the Conservative Party’s success in Britain alongside the success of the center-right coalition in Finland this year. After being out of power since 2011, the right wing bloc led by Lars Løkke Rasmussen has again captured a majority of seats in Denmark’s Folketing (Parliament).

Fired After Refusing To Abort Her Baby: Woman Wins Case For Unfair Dismissal
A pregnant Glaswegian charity worker was sacked by the fundraising company where she worked after her manager told her to have an abortion and she refused. An employment tribunal has now awarded £12,000 to 22-year-old Teri Cumlin having found her former employer, Engage Fundraising, guilty of unfair dismissal and sex and pregnancy discrimination.

Japan Lifts 67-Year-Old Ban on Dancing After Midnight
Japan has finally lifted a 67-year-old ban on dancing in bars and clubs after midnight. The now-nullified law prohibited dancing in public spaces, unless the venue had a license. Even then, bars and clubs had to stop dancing at midnight.

Swedish School Bans the Swedish Flag
The Swedish flag has now been banned at a primary school in Sweden. The reason is that the flag may be offensive to certain groups and breaking the law “offensive against ethnic groups.”

Opinion

Oppressive Biology
Feminist Tumblr attracts strange people with strange ideas, which they feel compelled to share with the world. Megan is 20 years old and her Tumblr profile begins by telling your her Myers Briggs personality type: INTP — introversion, intuition, thinking, perceiving. Why do so many Tumblr feminists list their Myers Briggs type? I don’t know. It’s a thing.

Politics In the Era of Symbolic Liberalism
I am old enough to remember when liberals actually thought liberalism was a good idea. Long ago, liberals like Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey fought for programs that they thought would improve the lives of Americans. True, many of their ideas turned out to be bad–I would argue that most were–but at least they had ideas, and they made an impact.

You will be made to care… about the Confederate Battle Flag
By this time everyone has seen the news that the political correctness army has scored another victory and gotten Republicans from Nikki Haley to Lindsey Graham to call for the removal of the Stars and Bars from public grounds at the state house.

A Dangerous Precedent
The rush to ban display and sale of the Confederate flag in the wake of last week’s shooting in Charleston should cause concern for any person intelligent enough to understand how such precedents, once established, are often used to justify further aggression by Cultural Marxists.

Blowing Up History: The ISIS Tendencies of the American Left
As Republicans everywhere ran for cover this week over the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina state capitol grounds, the left moved onto its next agenda items even as the right rushed to acquiesce: removal of monuments to Thomas Jefferson thanks to his slaveholding, removal of monuments to Confederate figures from government buildings, removal of Confederate gear for sale from Amazon, Ebay, Etsy, and other private sellers.

Same-Sex Marriage Won’t Bring Us Peace
The last ten years of same-sex marriage laws in Canada and other nations shows redefining marriage undermines freedom of speech and conscience, parent rights, and good home lives for children.

Fundamental Concepts – Game Over
Ever since SCOTUS decided King V Burwell, I’ve been in a bit of a daze. Yesterday morning I realized I was just sitting on the edge of my bed, one sock on, my toes tucked into the other, just…staring out the window. My wife was behind me calling my name.”Dave?….Dave?….Dave?..”. I shook it off, but in truth I feel quite a bit like Private Hudson.

A Question For Those Who Celebrate the Gay Marriage Decision
What would you think if the Court had decided the opposite? That is, if the Court had held that same sex marriage is unconstitutional, so that all state laws approving such unions are void, and all court decisions establishing same sex marriage are overruled. Would you then think it appropriate for “five lawyers,” as Chief Justice Roberts put it, to remove this issue from the democratic process and purport to resolve it by judicial fiat?

Something peculiar about that #LoveWins hashtag
Am I the only one who keeps thinking “Do you really need the Supreme Court’s and the United States Government’s permission to love?” That certainly seems to be the message implicit in the #LoveWins hashtag. While marriage at the personal level is aided by love, at both the civil and religious level it’s never been about love. It’s always been about pragmatic things such as procreation, child support, wealth distribution, and religious imperatives. Love has nothing to do with marriage — except for the married couple’s own emotions, which exist irrespective of church and state.

The quest for ideological purity in Supreme Court Justices
In our podcast last week, we tried to explain why Democratic-appointed Supreme Court Justices march in lockstep in the big, closely divided Supreme Court cases, while one Republican-appointed Justice (Anthony Kennedy) cannot be counted on at all to vote with his more reliably conservative brethren and a second (John Roberts) has parted company in two of most important cases decided in his tenure.

About that “polygamy is inevitable” thing…
On Friday, shortly after the Gaypocolypse began raining down on the media landscape like an ELE comet strike, I had already begun musing on Twitter about the no longer hypothetical slippery slope which had just opened up.

Our precious little snowflakes
The other day a proud father showed me a photo of his son’s graduation. There was the beaming scholar, diploma in hand, tasselled mortarboard on head, ready to take on the world.

Toward the Feminist Dystopia
@JanetheActuary is an outside-the-box thinker you should follow on Twitter, and her musing today on Patheos deserves notice.

The Politeness Trap
A few weeks ago I was reading Ace of Spades, which most of the time does not raise my blood pressure, when I came across this dismissive, gloaty type of post about how we’re done as a free people, because look at how people go through airport security: they eagerly, quickly, get all their trays and lay out their everything, etc.

38 ways college students enjoy “Left-wing Privilege” on campus
Among the great ironies surrounding the state of academia is the continued insistence on hearing more and more “marginalized voices” and increasing “diversity” on campus, as if there is some kind of archaic conservative establishment making that difficult to do.

Shakespeare and the decline of America
There are moments when I want to weep for America. They often come, now that I think of it, when I read the Washington Post. Last week, that newspaper ran an article by a long-serving English teacher in Sacramento called Dana Dusbiber, who dislikes Shakespeare so much that she has decided to ignore the curriculum and stop teaching his works.